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The A-Side of Their 100th 45 Single, Due Out June 28

Jun 13, 2019By Christopher Roberts

Daptone Records are releasing their 100th 45 single on June 28 and now the New York soul label has shared its A-side, "Hey Brother (Do Unto Others)." The song is credited to The Family Daptone and features the label's two biggest icons, Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley, both who have died in recent years (Jones in 2016 and Bradley in 2017, both due to cancer). The song also features Saun & Starr, The Frightnrs, James Hunter, Naomi Shelton, Duke Amayo, and Lee Fields, as well as members of The Dap-Kings and Menahan Street Band. Listen to it below.

An original version of the song was written by The Frightnrs and appeared on their 2016 album Nothing More to Say. The band's Dan Klein died of ALS just prior to the album's release, so Daptone thought it would be a fitting track to re-record for their 100th 45 release. The track has now become a tribute to not just the label, but to also those musicians they have lost: Jones, Bradley, Klein, and Cliff Diver.

Label co-founder Gabriel Roth (aka Bosco Mann) had this to say about the song in a press release: "Everybody seemed to really love the idea of being together on a record like that... Every one of those singers that I asked, after I explained what we were trying to do, they really jumped through hoops to try to make it happen."

The B-side to "Hey Brother (Do Unto Others)" is the instrumental track "Soul Fugue" by The 100 Knights Orchestra, which, as a press release points out, is a huge ensemble featuring "every horn player the label has ever worked with (really!) including current and past members of The Dap-Kings, Antibalas, The Budos Band, Menahan Street Band, The Extraordinaires, The Soul Providers, and The Daktaris." It was shared digitally back in May and can be heard below as well.